Modern Mechanix

In Fatima the Difference is Quality (Sep, 1951)

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That’s a pretty specific claim. Not the best cigarette, just the best long cigarette.

In Fatima the Difference is Quality

“I smoked FATIMAS when I was a Midshipman. I still do… because they have a better flavor and aroma. FATIMA is easily the best of all long cigarettes.”

VICE ADMIRAL Leland Lovette
U. S. N. (RET.)

FATIMA Best of All Long Cigarettes

Just how simple do word processors have to get before you begin using one? (Mar, 1988)

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Just how simple do word processors have to get before you begin using one?

Even simpler than your old typewriter?

No problem. Because we’ve made one that eliminates all the intimidating things you’ve always associated with word processors.

And we call it the Magnavox Videowriter.

The Videowriter is easier to set up than other word processors.

The average word processor has three separate pieces to hook together. A keyboard, a monitor and a printer. And that can be somewhat complicated.

Take the Videowriter home and you have a complete, portable unit. Virtually no set-up is necessary.

The instructions are easier to follow.

Unlike our competition, you don’t need an instruction manual to use it.

All the instructions you need appear on the right side of the screen. So you can learn as you go.

The keys are easier to understand.

Most word processors have keys marked “ESC,” “function” and “local command.”

The Videowriter has keys marked “spell,” “delete” and “help.”

In fact, all our keys tell you exactly what they do. We think it’s a lot easier to learn a keyboard when you can understand the keys.

And the price is easier to afford.

Surprised? We sell the Videowriter® Word Processor for around the price of a good electronic typewriter.

And, unlike most word processors, that price includes everything you need.

So go to your local Magnavox dealer and try one for yourself.

Chances are, you’ll find the only hard part about working with the Videowriter is deciding what to write.

MAGNAVOX Smart. Very smart.

BUYING A PASSWORD MODEM CAN SAVE YOU UP TO $250. (Jul, 1984)

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I don’t understand the “AND THAT AIN’T HAYES!”. I mean, I know that Hayes was the dominant modem at the time, but what is the reference to? It sounds like it should be “and that ain’t pocket change” or something…

BUYING A PASSWORD MODEM CAN SAVE YOU UP TO $250.

AND THAT AIN’T HAYES!

You can bank on it. Your outlay will be less than if you settle for our major competitor, but not your output! A Password’” modem sends and receives up to 120 words a minute. Provides both 1200 and 300 baud capacity. Offers total interchangeability that lets you transmit information from any make microcomputer to any other make. And your investment is protected by a 2-year warranty.

Unlike our major competitor, Password™ delivers operating simplicity, plus the convenience of uncommon portability. Thanks to lighter weight, it goes almost anywhere. And because of the ingenuity of Velcro™ strips, it attaches wherever you need it, from the side of a desk to the side of a computer!

This means that Password™ doesn’t tie you down, and its price won’t hold you up. It features auto-dial, auto-answer, and even knows when to disconnect. If you’re cost conscious, but refuse to sacrifice high-speed capability and performance, hook up with the right modem—Password?

The smart decision.

PASSWORD™ by U.S. Robotics, Inc.

1123 W. Washington
Chicago, IL 60607 Phone: (312) 733-0497

Rubber-Balloon Globe Puts the World in Your Pocket (Jun, 1942)

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Rubber-Balloon Globe Puts the World in Your Pocket

CARRYING the world in your pocket is no task with this balloon globe designed to keep you abreast of world events. The rubber balloon can be inflated by three or four lungfuls to a diameter of eight inches. The neck is then twisted and passed through a slot in the cardboard disk which is used as a base. The globe’s scale is approximately one inch for 800 miles. To put the world back in your pocket, just pull its neck out of the slot in the base and let the air escape.

I’d like to see them make (Feb, 1947)

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I’d like to see them make

Cartoons by SYD LAND

Catsup Tamer. Not too much, not too little, with this catsup regulator, says Bill Hopewell, of Cincinnati.

Back-seat Ejector. The automotive device above is the interesting brain child of David E. Mann, Jr., of Needham, Mass.

Squawking Purse. One that cries out if owner’s grip is released appeals to Mrs. Ethel T. Cearley, of Compton, Calif.

Fireside Lie Detector. It would put an end to tall tales around the house, declares Mrs. R. L. Clark, of San Jose, Calif.

Throat Saver. Eye-and-mouth masks for nonsmoking movie-goers are suggested by William Lohorco, of Brooklyn, N. Y.

Shake-up Wake-up. An awakening arm, not an alarm, is proposed by Sergio Horacio Paredes, of Brownsville, Texas.

Everybody has his own pet idea of some gadget he would like to see in general use. What is YOURS? Popular Science Monthly will pay five dollars for every such suggestion that its editors decide to publish.

Writing with your voice (Mar, 1947)

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Writing with your voice

Years ago Alexander Graham Bell dreamed of “a machine that should render visible to the eyes of the deaf, the vibrations of the air that affect our ears as sound.” He never realized that dream, but his researches led to the invention of the telephone.

Today Bell Telephone Laboratories have turned the dream into a fact—translating the spoken word into readable pictures.

By this new invention of the Laboratories, the talker speaks into a microphone. Vibrations of the voice are unraveled through electronic circuits, and then are reassembled as luminous patterns which travel across a screen. Each syllable of sound has a distinctive shape and intensity.

Visible speech is still in its infancy, and is not yet available to the public. But educators of the deaf are now evaluating it.

Indications are that the deaf can learn to read the patterns and, by comparing the patterns their own voices make with the patterns of correct speech, can improve their diction.

Patterns of visible speech also provide a means for analyzing and recording sound in the study of phonetics and of languages. Eventually, visible speech may make possible visual telephony for the deaf.

This is but one of many contributions by Bell Telephone Laboratories to the understanding and control of sound.

BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES
Exploring and Inventing, Devising and Perfecting for Continued Improvements and Economies in Telephone Service

More Pleasure at the Seashore (Oct, 1937)

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More Pleasure at the Seashore

SHOWN in the upper right corner is a simple and practical “non-skid” surf board with which you can bank and make turns. Two barrel staves are fastened at approximately a 25 degree angle to two substantial irons, which in turn are fastened to a heavy plank cut as shown in the illustration. The use of this surf board can easily be mastered in fifteen or twenty minutes.

Another highly amusing sport can be entered upon with the aid of two beach balls. This is called Beach Ball Jumping, and anyone with two beach balls and some leather straps can enter the fun.

The leather straps are attached to the balls as shown, by sewing to the leather of the ball. The resiliency of the balls will carry the jumper over the ground in thrilling strides.

This floating target shown will provide an expert marksman with something to “shoot at.” A three-legged wooden prop, upon which rests the target proper, fits the curved part of the tire. The prop is easily removable when not needed.

An anchor on each side of the tire will keep the target facing the rifleman.

If this float is placed on rough water, the waves will rock the target approximately six to twelve inches in either direction; this will take some clever shooting to hit the “bull’s eye.” An old steel oil barrel, a plank and some wooden braces 3″ x 3″ will provide you with a simple diving float which the children will enjoy. The barrel will slowly submerge when a diver stands out on the foremost end of the board.

The plank is either hinged, or attached by means of a pivot, as shown in the illustration, to the end of a dock, so that it is free to submerge. Wooden braces, 3″ x 3″, are screwed onto the iron barrel and attached to the under part of the plank at the angle shown. When once on this diving board the swimmer will get wet!

how important are SEX POSITIONS? (Sep, 1965)

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how important are SEX POSITIONS?

Common sense about a much-discussed aspect of marital sex.

by Richard Stiller, M.A.

Mr. Stiller is Associate Editor of this publication.

Most of us are convinced that “our” sex ways are the only normal ones and that those of others are degenerate and perverse. People find it hard to believe that individuals can differ in their sexual behavior and still be “right” or “normal.”

Take the matter of positions in sexual intercourse. Throughout much of the so-called civilized world—especially in Europe and America—it is largely assumed that the one position in which a man and his wife should have sexual intercourse is face to face, with the man above. This is usually referred to as the “conventional” or “traditional” position.

And yet in the classic cradle of western civilization, Greece and Rome, this sex position was almost unheard of if not unthinkable! It was customary, if we can believe the testimony of ancient art and culture, for the man to lie supine while the woman straddled him from above. The Roman poet Martial considered this so “normal and obvious,” writes the famous sexologist Van de Velde in Ideal Marriage, “that he could not conceive of . . . married couples . . . in any other attitude.”

As a matter of fact the earliest known depiction of human coitus—unearthed in Iraq in 1936—portrays this position.

Even today there are many peoples, in the islands of the Pacific for one, who consider the conventional sex posture somewhat ridiculous. Anthropologists who have studied these people say that they describe the man-above approach with great humor as “the missionary position.”

If one wishes to speak of a so-called “normal” coital position, one should consider the only position that is usual among mammals. Although one or two of the great apes are believed to use the conventional human position occasionally, in almost all mammals the males makes vaginal entry from the rear while the female crouches below and faces away from him. But this natural “animal” position (we are after all animals ourselves!) was used by only 11 per cent of the better educated couples interviewed by the Kinsey researchers, and fewer than 8 per cent of the less educated.

Right from the start the Jewish and Christian sexual codes which determined our traditional sex attitudes frowned upon any sexuality in marriage which separated pleasure from procreation, or which seemed to emphasize sexual satisfaction in any way. Thus the matter of sex positions—as much as matters of frequency of coitus, masturbation, birth control, etc.— was an early concern of Jewish and Catholic authorities.

In the early days of the Catholic Church any sex position except that of the woman prone with the man above was considered a matter for confession, and sometimes punishment. According to G. Rattray Taylor in Sex in History, the rear approach, which was believed to be the most pleasurable, was regarded with special horror and called for 7 years penance.

Modern Catholic interpretations have modified this view considerably. A recently published official Catholic marriage manual, Fundamental Marriage Counseling, by Dr. John R. Cavanagh, lists all variations of the face to face position as acceptable, including that with the woman above. It even states that this is “the best position” for honeymoon relations because it “allows the woman to control the pressure being made upon the hymen. . . .” No mention is made of the rear approach.

A traditional Jewish rule on coital positions simply states that intercourse should be accomplished “in the most possible modest (sic) manner.” An authoritative interpretation of this says that the position with the female above is considered improper.

Apart from the taboos that man has arbitrarily fastened on his own sex behavior, is there any real significance to one sex position as opposed to another?

The fact that most couples stick to what we call conventional face-to-face coitus with the man above seems to indicate that they find this most satisfactory. The Kinsey studies found that all the couples interviewed usually used this method, and that a majority of them used it exclusively. The only drawback to this position is that it does place the weight of the husband on the wife.

Thus a variation is sometimes helpful when the wife is pregnant and should not bear weight directly on her abdomen, or when the husband is so much larger and heavier as to constitute a serious burden for her to support.

Sometimes an illness may demand inactivity on the part of the husband. At such times the position with the wife above is recommended by some doctors. The lateral position, in which husband and wife lie side by side facing each other, is also recommended as restful and physically undemanding.

There are other medical reasons which suggest such variations in position. Among these are a too-short vagina, a too-long penis, or an exceptionally tough hymen. Almost any circumstance in which it is better for the wife to control the motion and degree of coital thrusting can be served by the wife-above position.

There are some other sexual reasons for recommending this position. Some marriage experts feel that this position helps the man suffering from premature ejaculation to delay his orgasm. It is also felt that it affords the woman greater satisfaction since she can control the movements of coitus. This position also affords greater body contact and stimulation to the female clitoris.

As far as conception is concerned, it is felt that the conventional position, with the woman remaining prone for some time after coitus, will facilitate fertilization of the egg. Some obstetricians feel that crouching in the knee-chest position right after coitus is even better.

As to the less – popular rear vaginal entry position, this is rarely recommended. Perhaps this is because it is almost impossible, in this position, for body or penile friction to be applied to the clitoris. On the other hand this position makes possible manual manipulation of the clitoris, where this is necessary or desired.

Ancient erotic literature and art make much of the vast number of coital positions possible. But in actual fact almost all of these are merely variations of face-to-face coitus. Some of them are so impossibly acrobatic in their requirements that it is doubtful if many ordinary couples could actually perform them.

The chief value of variations in position lies in the extra stimula- tion this can afford a husband and wife. A desire for variety is after all a quite common human trait.

Some marriage manual writers lay great stress on the importance of such variety. Write Jerome and Julia Rainer in Sexual Adventure in Marriage: “. . . Only a course of continuing practice with a variety of coital postures can bring genuine liberation from inhibited coital behavior, and the comfort of mind that is essential to free, joyful sexual adventure within marriage.”

A more conservative Catholic view is expressed by Dr. Cavanagh: “Numerous positions are described in works on the art of love .. . but all of these are merely minor variations . . . and have no real advantage to offer except variety.”

Perhaps most balanced is the view of pioneer sex educator and veteran marriage counselor Dr. Walter R. Stokes, who writes in Your Sex Life: The Newer Understanding of Married Love: “There can be no objection to a certain amount of experimenting with posture in intercourse but it should be obvious that physical comfort, rather than acrobatic agility, is paramount.”

To sum up: Position in sexual intercourse is only a means to an end. When that end — mutually comfortable and satisfactory coitus —is successfully achieved, it doesn’t much matter what technique is used.

Helium Once Worth $5,000 Costs under Two Cents (Dec, 1936)

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It looks like Helium will remain cheap, at least for a few more years. (BTW, every single publication I saw felt the need to make a Helium pun in the headline)

Helium Once Worth $5,000 Costs under Two Cents
Twenty years ago it would have cost you $5,000 to buy enough helium gas to inflate a small balloon about two and one-half feet in diameter. Today the same amount of gas can be had for one and one-half cents. The drastic reduction in the price of helium since 1916 is due to the discovery by the U. S. Bureau of Mines of a method of recovering helium from natural gas instead of from the air.

Famous BEATTIE JET LIGHTER (Nov, 1950)

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Famous BEATTIE JET LIGHTER

PERFECT XMAS GIFT FOR DAD • BROTHER OR YOURSELF…

Govt. Surplus Bargain

Tilted slightly, flame jets directly into pipe bowl. Upright, an excellent cigarette or cigar lighter. Protective windshield guarantees strong flame out-of-doors and indoors.

Pigskin covered. Gun metal trim. Factory guarantee enclosed with each lighter.

Buy now while they last.

REG. $5.00.
NOW ONLY $2.00 PPD.

Please send cash, check or money order.

E. G. HOWARD CO.
80 Washington St., Dept. A, Boston 8f Mass.
ORDER BY MAIL

LET’S BE PALS! – Odd Friendships End Old Feuds (Jul, 1940)

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Is it just me, or does that cat look fake? If there is one thing the internet should be good at, it’s determining the authenticity of cat pictures. After all, that is what it’s made of (video).

LET’S BE PALS! – Odd Friendships End Old Feuds

A DOG that adopted twin mice, a cat that mothers a bloodhound, and a parrot that is chummy with a St. Bernard—these are the strange animal relationships pictured on this page. The Spitz, belonging to an Atlanta, Ga., resident, recently discovered two newly born mice in a closet, and instead of tearing them to bits, hauled them out and took on the role of their protector. The cat shown at the right decided to add a bloodhound puppy that her Forth Worth, Tex., owner brought home to her litter of ten-day-old kittens. The friendship between the St. Bernard and the parrot was formed in a Cleveland, Ohio, home.

The everything set (Jun, 1979)

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The everything set

It’s a carry-along entertainment and information center—AM, FM, CB, public service, aircraft, and weather bands, three-inch TV, cassette tape—along with a built-in mike and sleep switch. Six D cells power it. It’s $249.95, from Sampo, 1050 Arthur Ave., Elk Grove Village, III. 60007.

“When you’re out of Schlitz, you’re out of beer.” (Feb, 1968)

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“When you’re out of Schlitz, you’re out of beer.”

“Go to the store. Go directly to the store.

Do not pass go. We are out of Schlitz.”

Try the taste of the most carefully brewed beer in the world. The beer that takes 1,174 careful brewing steps. Schlitz. Real gusto in the great light beer.

Schlitz
The Beer that made Milwaukee Famous

Blowing Distortion Out of Palomar’s Eye (Jun, 1950)

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Preventing distortion in modern telescopes is a bit more complicated.

Blowing Distortion Out of Palomar’s Eye

ORDINARY electric fans—a dozen of them—plus an “overcoat” of insulating foil are helping the Big Eye of the Palomar Observatory to see clearer and farther into the vastness of the universe.

Arranged in a circle in the 20-ton metal cell that holds the 200-inch mirror, the fans cut down distortion caused by uneven temperature changes in the glass. A sudden five-degree change in temperature may distort the mirror surface a few hundred -thousandths of an inch while the glass adjusts itself. To the astronomer, even this minute distortion is serious when he is photographing celestial bodies millions of miles away. The fans reduce this distortion an estimated 50 percent by circulating air over the back of the mirror, causing the giant glass disk to contract or expand evenly. A coating of insulating foil around the rim of the mirror also helps maintain an even temperature over the whole mirror.

Although the Hale telescope at Palomar is already the most perfect large astronomical telescope ever built, astronomers are continuously working toward perfection. Recent repolishing of high spots around the mirror’s outer edge and the addition of the fans and insulating foil are part of these continuing efforts.

Reeling to Safety (Mar, 1947)

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Reeling to Safety. Fire threaten? Strap on the belt, climb out the hotel window, and—as Detroit inventor Irving Bassett shows—a steel tape reels out automatically to drop you safely to the ground.

MIdge-Mobile (Jan, 1952)

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MIdge-Mobile

Rig this roadster to an automatic reel that permits continuous rotary action.

By Wesley Pickard

WATCHING Junior spin around in his own motor-driven speedster is a thrill you won’t want to pass up. Powered by a 1/3-hp motor, the car is perfectly-safe in operation, and may be wired for driving in one of several ways. The simplest, of course, is merely to attach a long cord (about 60 ft.) to the motor, connecting it to the outlet nearest to your lawn.

A much better set-up however, is mounting an automatic reeling device on a post in the center of your lawn or yard.

(See diagram on page 109.) A 25-ft. cord will be sufficient. With this assembly, your midget McCahill can travel all around the post in a radius of 25 ft., as the reel automatically feeds more cord or takes up any slack. In fact, for younger kids you may even want to lock the steering so that the car travels in a fixed circle without any possibility of the driver changing the course. And with this reel, there will be no snags, no twisted cords. The reel, available from the Appleton Electric Co., 1701-59 Wellington Ave., Chicago, costs about $18. Specify reel No. 7S2.

My own design on this car utilized the top of an ironing board for the body base, and templates for the body were cut to this shape. However, you can substitute plywood for a body base. Since the chassis is larger than the body itself, it was designed and assembled later in order to conform perfectly to the body dimensions. Chassis is 1-in. angle iron throughout. Templates for the body, which is assembled with in. stove bolts, were traced onto thin-gauge sheet metal, and were cut with tin snips. The sharp edges around the seat were turned under and nailed to the wooden base.

The steering is very simple. C-shaped knuckles were made of strap iron bent to shape in a vise. Holes were then drilled to accept the king pins and axle. The latter can be made in three pieces: two 1/2-in. stub axles and a length of 2-in. channel beam. The front wheels pivot on a single truck U-joint bearing with a bolt slipped in from the rear and welded around the head. This method provides knee action for the front wheels, and assures firm traction for the rear wheels at all times, even on unlevel ground. The tie rods are welded to the knuckles; cotter pins are used to prevent the nuts on the ends of the stub axles from working free. Drag links from the steering arms to the tie rods are fastened in a similar manner.

Most of the motor mounting and drive assemblies were turned out on a lathe. Note that the drive is hooked up to the left rear wheel only. Two pulleys are required: one 1-1/2 in. unit on the motor arbor and an 8-in. pulley mounted on a rod which is connected to the frame with two truck bearings identical to the one used on the front wheel assembly.

A 34-tooth sprocket is mounted on the rear axle, which is 27 in. in length and turned from 3/4-in. steel rod. An 8-tooth sprocket is mounted on the outside of the larger pulley. Use 1/2-in. pitch chain, as indicated in the sketch on opposite page.

The rear deck of the body is hinged along the back of the car. This permits you to fold back the entire rear end, exposing the motor and drive assembly for adjustment and inspection. The front portion of this “hood” merely rests on the seat upright.

The seat itself is bolted to the chassis, and both- seat and back rest are upholstered with foam rubber. •

LARGE-SCALE PLANS will greatly simplify construction. Send $1 to Mechanix Illustrated Plans Service, Fawcett Building, Greenwich, Connecticut. Please specify Plan No. HJ-20.

128 mph in 2nd Gear (Oct, 1952)

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That’s not very informative if they don’t tell you how many gears it actually has…

128 mph in 2nd Gear

LOOKING like a large watermelon seed, this super-streamlined auto racer is showing slick form. In the running tests for the Bonneville National Speed Trials it developed 128 mph in second gear. Powered with a souped-up Mercury engine of 250 cu. in., the car is 20 ft. long, 6 ft. wide, and 31 in. high. It weighs 1800 lbs., and the frame is built of thin wall Steel tubing with a 3 point suspension. Owner and co-builder is Harold Post (left), and driver is Doug Hartelt, both from Orange, Cal.

Berlin Maintains Clock Of Lives (Nov, 1936)

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This thing must have gotten really annoying during WWII.

Berlin Maintains Clock Of Lives
A CLOCK of Lives operated by the Statistical Office in Berlin, Germany, informs spectators that the German population is constantly increasing. To insure being seen by many people, the clock was placed in Doenhoff-Place, a busy Berlin thoroughfare.

Lecturer Controls All Demonstrations (Sep, 1936)

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Lecturer Controls All Demonstrations

WHAT is called the most novel and original control system is now in operation in the Skinner Hall of Music at Vassar College. Conceived by Professor George B. Dickinson, of the Department of Music, this unique system permits the professor to go through the whole routine without moving a step away from his lecture table, but cutting in the big organ, radio or phonograph, stereopticon, piano, etc., by merely pressing a button or closing a switch. Furthermore, the professor can interrupt at any point to explain certain things in detail, or can repeat any part of, or all, of the previous routine at will. For instance, if one of Wagner’s compositions is being played on the phonograph, and has reached a point where some explanatory remarks are necessary, the professor pushes a switch, which automatically raises the reproducing arm and holds it at that exact point, off the record, which meanwhile continues to revolve. After the necessary comment, the Professor again throws the switch, and the needle engages at the same point on the record as before the interruption. The same thing applies to the magnificent new pipe organ, which, in addition to its regular keyboards, is operated by music rolls, as are also the grand pianos. Pushing a switch turns out the lights and starts the stereopticon, which automatically projects and changes all or any part of 52 lantern slides.

Perhaps one of the most unusual features of this novel system is the synthetic section of the big pipe organ. Although this is of most modern design, with thousands of pipes, it was found that the design of the building did not permit the installation of its giant 32-foot pipes, which are so essential in organ music. Vibrating reeds, vacuum-tube oscillators, and loudspeakers completely solved this problem.

RHEUMATISM (Feb, 1909)

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Apparently they have a trademark on magic feet.

RHEUMATISM

I Will Send Every Sufferer Who Returns My Coupon My One Dollar External Cure to TRY FREE

SEND NO MONEY-ONLY THE COUPON

I have found an external cure for Rheumatism that is curing old chronic cases of 30 and 40 years suffering, as well as all the milder stages.

I have the proof to convince anybody that Magic Foot Drafts are curing where doctors and baths and medicine failed. No matter how severe or chronic your case may be, you who have endured the endless torture of this cruel disease, must try my Drafts, for there is relief and comfort in every pair, whether your Rheumatism is chronic or acute, muscular, inflammatory, sciatic, lumbago, or gout. Send in my coupon today. Return mail will bring the Drafts, prepaid. Then if you are satisfied with the benefit received, send us One Dollar. If not, keep your money. You decide, and we take your word. Just sign and mail this coupon.

FREE $1 COUPON

Magic Foot Draft Co., Jackson, Mich.

Please send a $1.00 pair of Magic Foot Drafts to:

Fishing for Oil (Sep, 1936)

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Fishing for Oil

A very valuable oil, for watches and fine machinery, is obtained from the blubber of the “blackfish”—which is really not a fish, but a species of small whale, attaining a length of 30 feet and weighing three tons or more.

THE average person, hearing of a “blackfish,” imagines it to be an ordinary fish, about the size of a herring. But there are many fish called “black-fish” and one of them (sometimes called the “pilot-whale”) is not a fish at all, but a mammal (a species of small whale). A full-grown blackfish averages 30 feet in length and weighs about 3 tons.

The blackfish travel in schools, as many as 2,000 having been seen in one school, although usually a school averages about 100 fish.

During the season from July until October, the blackfish go into harbors in search of food and, if the tide happens to go out while the fish are in the harbor, they sometimes get into a natural fish-trap and are left stranded high and dry on the sand flats. Because the blubber of the blackfish produces the finest grade of oil on the market, oil manufacturers have watch-out groups of fishermen, who are familiar with the habits of the blackfish and, during these months, are on the lookout for just such happenings as above described.

When a school of blackfish is stranded, the fishermen immediately go out on the sand flats where they are floundering, to lance them; after which the fishermen begin cutting off the tops of the heads, or “blubber caps,” which contain this very fine grade of oil. The quality of oil depends greatly on the freshness of the blubber, so they must work fast before the carcass begins to deteriorate.

In the meantime the oil manufacturer is notified and trucks are sent to the scene of the cutting-up, to carry the blubber to the refinery promptly.

Only the top of the head of each blackfish is considered worthwhile. Therefore, after these caps are removed from the blackfish, the carcass must be disposed of, for one can imagine how offensive a single decomposing blackfish would be—to say nothing of a whole school of them.

The workmen dig a large pit, on the shore, from ten to fifteen feet deep. Each carcass is dragged to the pit by caterpillar tractors (sometimes teams of horses are used in the hauling). When all the carcasses are in the pit, they are covered over with dirt.

When the “blubber caps” arrive at the refining plant, the men begin at once preparing them for the try-pots. These men have to be efficient in this particular line, for good oil depends greatly on knowing just where to cut the blubber, and to reject just those portions that would not produce good oil. They call this process “making bible leaves,” as the blub- ber must be cut into very thin slices. This is important because a small piece of blubber, if examined through a microscope, would show thousands of tiny cells, each cell containing oil; therefore, the blubber must be cut fine so as to cut into as many of the cells as possible; then, when the minced blubber it put into the try-pots, all the oil will be extracted.

The try-pots are steam-jacketed kettles and the blubber is tried very slowly, in order not to burn the oil and, also, to give the oil ample time to seep from the blubber. After removing from the try – pots, further refining takes place. Three years elapse before the process is finally completed, during which there is a 50% loss. This long and careful process of refining is to give the oil long life.

Machinery, when lubricated with this fine-grade oil, will function properly whether in frigid conditions or in the most intense heat of a tropical zone.

The following incident is interesting: a torpedo was sunk deep in mud for several months. Mud and water soaked into the casing and, when drawn to the surface, the torpedo was found to be badly rusted, except the gyro gear, which had been so protected by blackfish oil that it had not rusted in the least.

The cap of a full-grown blackfish will produce four gallons of oil. On the other hand, if all the blubber of a full-grown blackfish were tried out, it would yield one hundred and twenty-five gallons of oil—yet, after the final refinement, this would produce only four gallons of fine-grade oil.

This exclusive story was obtained from Mr. Howard Wordell, manager of the Nye Oil Works, of New Bedford, Mass.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: 1879-1955 (Jun, 1955)

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ALBERT EINSTEIN: 1879-1955

Tributes by Niels Bohr and I. I. Rabi

With the death of Albert Einstein, a life in the service of science and humanity which was as rich and fruitful as any in the whole history of our culture has come to an end. Mankind will always be indebted to Einstein for the removal of the obstacles to our outlook which were involved in the primitive notions of absolute space and time. He gave us a world picture with a unity and harmony surpassing the boldest dreams of the past.

Einstein’s genius, characterized equally by logical clarity and creative imagination, succeeded in remolding and widening the imposing edifice whose foundations had been laid by Newton’s great work. Within the frame of the relativity theory, demanding a formulation of the laws of nature independent of the observer and emphasizing the singular role of the speed of light, gravitational effects lost their isolated position and appeared as an integral part of a general kinematic description, capable of verification by refined astronomical observations. Moreover, Einstein’s recognition of the equivalence of mass and energy should prove an invaluable guide in the exploration of atomic phenomena.

Indeed, the breadth of Einstein’s views and the openness of his mind found most remarkable expression in the fact that, in the very same years when he gave a widened outlook to classical physics, he thoroughly grasped the fact that Planck’s discovery of the universal quantum of action revealed an inherent limitation in such an approach. With unfailing intuition Einstein was led to the introduction of the idea of the photon as the carrier of momentum and energy in individual radiative processes. He thereby provided the starting point for the establishment of consistent quantum theoretical methods which have made it possible to account for an immense amount of experimental evidence concerning the properties of matter and even demanded reconsideration of our most elementary concepts.

The same spirit that characterized Einstein’s unique scientific achievements also marked his attitude in all human relations. Notwithstanding the increasing reverence which people everywhere felt for his attainments and character, he behaved with unchanging natural modesty and expressed himself with a subtle and charming humor. He was always prepared to help people in difficulties of any kind, and to him, who himself had experienced the evils of racial prejudice, the promotion of understanding among nations was a foremost endeavor. His earnest admonitions on the responsibility involved in our rapidly growing mastery of the forces of nature will surely help to meet the challenge to civilization in the proper spirit.

To the whole of mankind Albert Einstein’s death is a great loss, and to those of us who had the good fortune to enjoy his warm friendship it is a grief that we shall never more be able to see his gentle smile and listen to him. But the memories he has left behind will remain an ever-living source of fortitude and encouragement. —Niels Bohr

With Albert Einstein’s death a great light has gone out in the world of physics, for Einstein, more than any other man, set the tone of the physics of the 20th century. His theories of special and general relativity were the capstone of classical physics and the theory of fields. His theory of light quanta and his later demonstration of the nature of the fluctuations of “black body” radiation raised the paradox of the wave-particle duality, which was partly resolved two decades later in the principle of complementarity of Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg.

His 1917 paper, introducing the ideas of spontaneous and stimulated emission of radiation, was the first clear statement of the statistical nature of fundamental atomic phenomena. The famous Einstein A and B coefficients led to the quantitative use of the correspondence principle and to the formulation of the Kramers-Heisenberg dispersion formula, which in turn led to Heisenberg’s matrix mechanics. Einstein was therefore in a very real sense the founder of the statistical theory of fundamental atomic phenomena.

There is scarcely any important fundamental idea in modern physics whose origin does not trace back at least in part to Einstein. Yet, like many another father, he was not really satisfied with the children of his scientific imagination. He never regarded his mighty contributions to quantum theory as other than provisional suggestions for the ordering of phenomena. The subsequent formulations of quantum mechanics and especially the thoroughgoing statistical interpretations were to him philosophically and esthetically repugnant.

The Einstein-Bose statistics and the Einstein condensation phenomenon were his last important positive contributions to quantum theory. His subsequent role with respect to quantum theory was that of a critic. He applied the force of his great imagination to the construction of imaginary experiments which involved the theory in seemingly paradoxical and contradictory predictions. The resolution of these paradoxes, chiefly through the efforts of Bohr, served to refine and clarify the principle of complementarity but left Einstein unconvinced.

His real love was the theory of fields, which he pursued with unremitting vigor to the very end of his more than 50 years of active scientific life. This preoccupation is to a large degree the key to his scientific personality. The theory of general relativity was constructed on the basis of a physical observation of the equivalence of inertial and gravitational mass under certain simple circumstances. Beyond that, his guiding principles were his esthetic and philosophical urge for simplicity and symmetry. His intuition and taste led him to believe that the equivalence principle was true in general, and that the equations of physics must be covariant in all systems of coordinates. With these guidelines and with the use of mathematical tools already at hand, he built a theory of gravitation and of the structure of the cosmos.

Like a mystic who has had a divine illumination, Einstein in his search for the ideal could be satisfied with nothing less than a theory which would encompass all phenomena—atomic and cosmic. He once remarked to me in a discussion concerning the newly discovered meson: “We already know that the electron is quantized in charge and mass. Should not this be enough empirical information for a theory of matter?” It was a goal of this grandeur that drove him in his search for a unified field theory.

Einstein was a unique personality. He was not attracted by fame or fortune nor swayed by the opinions of the majority. He knew his talent and guarded it jealously against outside interference. Although fearless in support of any cause he considered worthy, he gave only so much of himself and no more. Physics was his life, and he lived it according to his own lights, with complete objectivity and integrity.

He was the prince of physicists, and the imprint of his mighty strides will give direction to his beloved science for generations to come.

—I. I. Rabi

Boy Combines Disappearing Hose Reel and Coal Chute (Nov, 1929)

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Boy Combines Disappearing Hose Reel and Coal Chute
WHEN Dwight Mills, 10-year-old Dayton, Ohio, boy became weary of lugging the lawn hose down into the basement he suggested to his father that they build a hose reel in the foundation wall. As a result the boy and his father evolved this hose reel which drains the hose and permits its removal in winter and use of the opening as a coal chute. The reel is made of heavy steel punchings, well ribbed. There are ball bearings for the axle. The frame consists of a front flange formed to fit the opening in the wall, securely locating it. Four bolts are put through the flange and fastened to cleats on the inside of the foundation wall. The reel proper is mounted on the door which opens downward.

Cylinders Replace Wings in Plane (Feb, 1934)

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Cylinders Replace Wings in Plane
Jets of air, sucked in at the front and expelled at the rear of huge tubes, are the unconventional means advanced by a Glen-dale, Calif., inventor for lifting and propelling an airplane. He has designed and patented a wingless craft, employing this principle, which he maintains will be able to rise and descend vertically and to hover motionless aloft. According to the inventor’s plans, a propeller and motor are installed within each of two tubes, which in turn are so mounted above a standard airplane fuselage that they may be swung by the pilot to any angle. For a take-off, the tubes are to be operated in a perpendicular position, thus providing a vertical lifting force. Once in the air, the pilot would tilt the tubes ahead, in order to cause the plane to travel forward. An auxiliary propeller on the fuselage is provided to aid in forward travel, while rudders steer the plane.

MINOX B CAMERA has built-in EXPOSURE METER (Sep, 1958)

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MINOX B CAMERA has built-in EXPOSURE METER

You’ll have fun shooting magnificent perfectly exposed pictures (3″ x 4″ and Larger) with this new marvel of West German precision engineering. The Minox B (weighs but 3-1/4 oz., only 3-7/8″ long) eliminates guesswork. It’s quick, sure, simple to use

. . . will be your constant companion.

Critically sharp f/3.5 lens; all speeds to 1/1000 sec.; loads in a wink; lots of other features. See your photo dealer today for a demonstration.

Be first to own the exciting, all-in-one Minox B.

Minox B, chrome finish with case and chain . . 169.95

Minox III-S, (without exposure meter) chrome finish with case and chain . . 139.50

For complete Minox literature, write

KLING PHOTO CORP.
257 Fourth Ave., New York 10,
sole U.S. distributor

ECOLOGY a cause becomes a mass movement ()

2013-04-17T14:49:16Z

Well, the timeline was a bit off, but I think there can be little doubt that SSTs are responsible for the autism “epidemic”.

Disregarding the timeline, if you polled people in 1970, I wonder which of these they would have thought would be the biggest issue today.

ECOLOGY: a cause becomes a mass movement

Demonstrators organize to defend vanishing trees, wetlands and unpolluted air.

Unless something is done to reverse environmental deterioration, say many qualified experts, horrors lie in wait. Others disagree, but scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support each of the following predictions:

In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution.

In the early 1980s air pollution combined with a temperature inversion will kill thousands in some U.S. city.

By 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half.

In the 1980s a major ecological system —soil or water—will break down somewhere in the U.S. New diseases that humans cannot resist will reach plague proportions.

Increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will affect the earth’s temperature, leading to mass flooding or a new ice age.

Rising noise levels will cause more heart disease and hearing loss. Sonic booms from SSTs will damage children before birth.

Residual DDT collecting in the human liver will make the use of certain common drugs dangerous and increase liver cancer.

In the fall of 1963 President Kennedy, on a tour through the Western states, delivered a conservation speech in Ashland, Wis. It was greeted with a yawn. The subject bored him, it bored the audience, and for the rest of the trip he talked about the atomic test ban treaty. During the 1968 presidential campaign, conservationists pleaded with all the candidates to speak out on environment but received the barest response. None of them did until late in the campaign, and even then the issue never became a major one.

Today, in a matter of months, conservation has emerged forcefully as a potent political issue, under the name of ecology, a term referring to the relationship between environment and life. The issue may well dominate the new decade. Last week President Nixon devoted a major portion of his State of the Union address to it. Both the regular press and the underground press print stories daily about ecology. On the far right, members of the John Birch Society are decrying pollution in language similar to that used by the radical left. College students are forming conservation organizations to demand, and often get, environmental courses. On April 22 an environmental teach-in is scheduled; it may involve as many as 1,000 campuses.

Ecology is one major political issue on which the country may be united. It is as insistent as the environmental destruction all around us: the smog that makes our eyes smart, the food we are wary of eating because of pesticides, the rivers and lakes we can no longer swim in or fish in. The tide of information about pollution has left us no excuse for not knowing what we have been doing to ourselves. For the first time in history we are being forced to recognize that the earth is a finite resource, and the public response to this tremendous fact promises to shake American society. “The politics of environment,” says Social Anthropologist Luther Gerlach, “will be the biggest mass movement in the history of this country.” The movement has begun.

‘We need a flood of new laws’
Public enthusiasm for conservation has far outraced the laws necessary to make conservation work. However, environmental law is the fastest-growing legal field today. This year one out of five of the nation’s 65,000 law students will take courses in the field, most of them new. A variety of cases passing through the courts, plus proposals awaiting legislative action, promise to establish a number of useful principles. According to David Sive of New York, one of the nation’s leading environmental lawyers, a basic point yet to be settled is whether there is a constitutional right to a decent environment. So far, no court has granted this. In the meantime, conservation groups are attempting to secure more legal control of planning agencies and more adequate court review of their decisions. “But,” says Sive, “we also need a flood of new laws defining the people’s rights in land, water and air.”

Smoke a Fresh cigarette (Jul, 1931)

2013-04-16T15:06:31Z

If you haven’t smoked a Camel recently, switch over for just one day, then quit them — if you can.

That’s a bit ominous.

Smoke a Fresh cigarette

Millions of men and women are now discovering a brand new enjoyment since Camels adopted the new Humidor Pack.

The mildness and the flavor of fine tobacco vanish when scorching or evaporation steals the natural moisture out of a cigarette.

Now, thanks to the new Humidor Pack, Camels, wherever you find them, are always fresh and in perfect mild condition.

Factory-fresh Camels are air-sealed in the new Sanitary Package which keeps the dust and germs out, and keeps the flavor in.

No harsh, dried tobacco to burn the throat. No peppery dust to sting delicate membrane — just the cool mild aroma of fine tobacco, properly conditioned.

If you haven’t smoked a Camel recently, switch over for just one day, then quit them — if you can.

It is the mark of a considerate hostess, by means of the Humidor Pack, to “Serve afresh cigarette.” Buy Camels by the carton — this cigarette will remain fresh in your home and office.

Camels

Motor Boat Sportsmen Race Over Merry-Go-Round Course for Thrill (Sep, 1930)

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Wouldn’t the boat on the inside track always win?

Motor Boat Sportsmen Race Over Merry-Go-Round Course for Thrill

SPEEDING at 40 miles per hour in an outboard motorboat around a merry-go-round course is one of the thrill-producers of water sportsmen at Winterhaven, Florida. Each boat is attached to a rope of a different length from the others so that the boats can pass each other on the course. They circle round and round the central pole held by the ropes. The only difficulty in this sport is that you never get anywhere—you just keep on going and end at the beginning.

MIDGET German car (Mar, 1957)

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MIDGET German car seats four people back-to-back. It has front, rear door, does an estimated 50 mph, will sell for about $760.

Building Play Lot Equipment For The Kiddies Enjoyment (Jun, 1937)

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Building Play Lot Equipment For The Kiddies Enjoyment

These playground projects solve the problem of keeping small children away from dangers of busy streets.

by Hi Sibley

KEEPING children off dangerous streets during the summer vacation months is a difficult task unless some means can be devised whereby their attentions are centered on the home or its surroundings. One way to accomplish this is through the construction of a backyard play lot, but even then you cannot expect to hold the children’s interest with merely a sandbox and a few toys. Slides and swings are part of the equipment necessary and need no explanation as to their construction. In addition one or two novel pieces of recreation equipment are recommended such as the clever “toggle-teeter” and giant “piano stool” about to be described.

The “toggle-teeter” is entirely different from the usual teeter board inasmuch as two fulcrums and a toggle link provide bucking bronco action instead of the ordinary up and down motion. A sudden lunge by one rider will cause the other to sail upward or both riders can move in the same direction by regulating their movements accordingly.

Construction of the “toggle-teeter” is not complicated in the least respect. First assemble the wooden base from 2-inch by 5-inch stock, burying the sills under the ground to provide a firm foundation. Holes are drilled in the upright members for inserting the 1-inch galvanized pipe fulcrums and the planks are then clamped in position with “U” bolts. The planks each measure 12 feet, 9 inches in length and 7 inches in width. The plank stock is 2 inches thick with a hole large enough to pass the 9/16″ link bolt drilled in one end of each plank. The “U” bolts are inserted at a point 3 feet, 9 inches from the ends through which the link bolts will pass.

Make the toggle link from angle iron to the size and shape indicated in the link detail diagram. Spacer blocks welded in each end of the angle iron runners permit the long 9/16-inch bolts to slide back and forth freely in the link so as to provide the unique teeter action. A heavy steel plate welded in the center of the angle iron runners forms an anchor for the heavy coil spring providing the teeter’s momentum. The spring is drawn rigid and anchored to a 4-inch by 4-inch cross-piece under the base. If a spring of sufficient tension is not available inner tubing can be substituted with equal results.

A brick lined well directly under the center of the teeter assembly permits spring repairs or replacing of inner tubing when necessary. To protect it from the weather and add to its appearance the teeter should be enameled or painted in bright colors.

Most all small children are fascinated by revolving stools, whether in front of a piano or in a drug store, and like to climb aboard and spin around on them. A giant “piano stool” for the play lot is easy to make and will furnish the tiny tots with plenty of harmless thrills.

The top of the stool is a 3-foot plywood disc, % inch in diameter, mounted on a steel shaft which rides in two bronze bushings. The weight is carried by a heavy-duty ball thrust-bearing which can be picked up at any auto wrecking yard. The base on which the top revolves is a simple standard built from 2-inch by 4-inch timbers grooved down the center and bolted together so as to hold the bushings rigid. Four brackets are cut from 1-inch stock and fastened to the standard and plywood base, completing the tiny merry-go-round. Sand down the edge of the disc so that no rough snags are present, then finish the stool in bright enamels.

During the past few years bicycle riding has proved to be one of the most popular sports among the older children and the increasing number of bicycles about the home premises led to many being broken by automobiles accidentally running over them when carelessly left on driveways by their riders. A “bike” garage is one way to protect the bicycles from accidental breakage and at the same time protect them from the elements.

An individual bicycle shelter is neither difficult to make nor expensive. Consisting merely of a plywood box, open at one end and slotted at the top, upon which is erected a light framework to support a gayly colored awning. While no flooring is provided in the box one can easily be made if desired. Shelves on the inside of the box provide ample storage space for spare tires and tools and other stray articles. Increasing the width of the box permits an additional bicycle, scooter or tricycle to be accommodated.

Protect the “bike” garage from rain by painting it with two coats of good paint or enamel. The ends of the plywood are first shellaced to prevent water seaping in and opening the laminations.

A wading pool is an easily built piece of equipment that will keep small children amused for. hours during the hot summer days. The wading tank is constructed from a good grade of lumber and calked in the same manner as a boat.

First make the bottom of the tank by laying four 3/4 by 9-inch boards on three 2 by 4-inch skids. Bevel the boards before assembling so that a vee groove is formed for calking the joints with candle wicking soaked in marine glue. Fasten down the boards to the skids with countersunk brass or galvanized iron screws, so that they will not cut tiny feet.

Next erect the sides of the tank using three-sided cleats along the joints. The cleats should have candle wicking and marine glue inserted under them before screwing down to the floor of the tank. Four boards, each 9 by 3/4 inches are attached around the top of the tank to form seats for the young bathers. The seat boards are 4 feet 2 inches in length and rounded off at the corners as shown in the perspective plans.

Complete the tank by installing the sprinkler unit. Make this from four lengths of iron pipe connected to form a cross and bent so as to provide a support, at the same time, for the canopy. A hose coupling is provided at the end of one of the pipes and the others plugged up. Small holes drilled in the pipes provide the novel shower effect.